This grant, issued by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), solicits applications for developing and testing innovative theories and computational, mathematical, or engineering approaches to deepen our understanding of complex social behavior. This research will examine phenomena at multiple scales to address the emergence of collective behaviors that arise from individual elements or parts of a system working together. This FOA will support research that explores the often complex and dynamical relationships among the parts of a system and between the system and its environment in order to understand the system as a whole.

To accomplish the goals of this FOA we encourage applications that build transdisciplinary teams of scientists spanning a broad range of expertise. Minimally this team should include senior investigators with expertise in the behavioral or social sciences as well as in computational and systems thinking (computer science, mathematics, engineering, systems-level methodology). Research can involve model organisms or humans. The FOA will support small research projects focusing on theory building and testing, development and testing of innovative methods or methodological approaches, as well as small infrastructure projects focusing on development and testing of shared resources (in the context of a driving biological, basic behavioral or social, or human health issue). The FOA also will fund larger and more integrative research projects focusing on the modeling of complex social behavior.